May 02, 2011

My post-Easter activities, this year, included a quick trip to Orlando for Exponential 2011... a national gathering of church planters from every corner of the country and a few folks from across the globe. An estimated 4,000 people gathered at First Baptist Church... a larger than usual ecclesial out-post a stone's throw from the epicenter of family fun in Orlando. Prior to an e-newsletter from Path 1 I hadn't, somehow, heard of this particular conference, but a quick glance at the schedule, workshops, and a few of the presenters prompted me to take this conference in for the insight it might provide our Congregational Development team of the Yellowstone Conference as well as a little personal development on the side. While the focus of the gathering was church planting, it seems that any energized, intentional rhythm of ecclesiological praxis in one arena might translate to another with a little work.... and so is the case here. I was definitely surprised by the diversity of the group... young, old, male, female, new-comers, old seasoned pros, denominational leaders, solo expeditionists and the list goes on. The theological diversity of the group was noticeable and profound, but, at the end as I sat in the 5,000 seat sanctuary nearly alone, the notion struck me that common thread woven through the entire event was a reflection of one simple line from a fairly common prayer, "... your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth just as it is in heaven." I still have a lot to process, but here are a few initial thoughts...

Missionally oriented Christology, Ecclesiology, and Theology: Well, unless you have been under a rock for the past few years, you have probably heard the word "Missional" tossed around when it comes to religion, Christian spirituality, and ecclesiological exploration. It seems to me that the word has been circulated rather liberally in recent years in an almost faddish kind of way... which seems a tad odd, since, in the truest sense of the word (whatever that is), to be missional should probably be a core anchor point for any Christian pilgrim or pioneer.... I know I have tossed it around several thousand times and consider myself to have a missional spirit. Definitions aren't hard to come by, in fact the word was defined and re-defined by nearly every person that spoke this week. A couple of macro level notions lingered in my head during my time in Orlando... 1) I haven't traveled the globe much, but in my travels to China, Mexico, and Central America, I came away with the sense that North American Christianity has cornered the market on the compartmentalization of mission and 'evangelism.' In other areas of the world it seems that there is little separation between reaching out to the least, the last, and the lost... and sharing a bit about why it is that we do what we do. While we, in the US, have labored assiduously throughout the 20th century to ensure an impenetrable divide between mission and evangelism, our brothers and sisters around the orb seem not to distinguish between the two except in cases where western religion has plagued indigenous people groups and their expressions of faith and spirituality. Perhaps one element of being "Missional" is to not separate how we care, help, and love from why we care, help, and love. 2) One frustration that I can't seem to shake is the reality that it is impossible for mainline denominations to be truly "Missional" in nature. Deep within our DNA is a strand of institutionalization that prevents us from being anything but institutional as we move forward through time... and by being institutional in nature we forfeit any possibility of living into any other "ional." When movement gave way to institution, our primary rhythm became self-preservation... and as the Right Reverend Amy Lippoldt once tweeted, "once you become an institution, you can never go back to being a movement." (that's a bit of a paraphrase) Perhaps our fate has been sealed... we have proven over and over again that we can "do" mission, but doing mission and being missional are worlds apart. The way I understand the narratives of the bible... we are invited by God to explore Christology, Ecclesiology, and Theology through a "missional" lens... our current practical exploration of those three elements has us peering through an institutional lens fogged over with a polity that demands primary attention toward self-preservation. I am left wondering if it was a dynamic like this that prompted John Wesley to initiate a movement....

Measuring Congregational Vitality: Somewhere along the line, I developed an interest in statistics… perhaps it came from a statistics course that I had to take at Tabor College in order to get into the Christian Ministries program, or maybe it’s my innate sense of all things mathematical… not!!! At any rate, statistics continue to fascinate me. While statistics are not the end all, be all of adding ultimate understanding to that which they are representing, they do give us a cursory sense of a past or present reality. Regarding congregational vitality, statistics, measurements, and ‘metrics’ give us an interesting perspective on the condition of Kingdom participation. In the United Methodist tradition, we have been required, for eons, to report various statistics that, in some way, are meant to give an idea of individual congregational vitality. The effectiveness of this practice continues to be debated within a wide variety of cult circles inside (and probably outside) of our denomination. Among many things, we report membership, worship attendance, budget size, expenses paid, baptisms, professions of faith, apportionments pledged/paid, ‘money spent on missions,’ etc. Our recent “Call to Action” lifted up several ‘marks’ of vitality:

Vital churches offer a variety of worship experiences and styles.

Vital churches offer dynamic preaching.

Members of vital churches are involved in small groups.

Members of vital churches are engaged in their communities and around the world in hands on mission outreach.

I find it interesting that 75% of these ‘marks’ of vitality are inwardly focused… supporting my notion that our primary focus is institutional preservation (which saddens me a bit). Beyond that, “In order to be healthy, the adaptive challenge of the United Methodist Church is to redirect resources to increase the number of vital congregations…” to these four areas:

Worship attendance

Professions of faith

The number of small groups and the number of people participating in small groups

The amount of money and number of persons engaged in mission outreach

Again, a bit of an inward focus. I have been consumed recently wondering what would serve as a better indication of congregational vitality… a bit of the answer came from Reggie McNeal during main session number three. One thought that Reggie brought to the surface pointed toward a shift in the metrics we use to measure congregational vitality… rather than the typical metrics mentioned above, McNeal suggested the following “Kingdom Metrics” as a means of measurement… “a decrease in community crime rates, rising high school graduation rates, a drop in gang violence….” Imagine what our denomination(s) would look like if this were how we were held accountable… how about a few more marks of vitality to choose from that serve as a greater reflection of who we are and the difference we make rather than how big we are… perhaps metrics like local school academic performance on the rise, increase in local green spaces and recycling participation, falling domestic violence rates, a reduction in adolescent and adult drug and alcohol abuse, a falling community poverty rate, a lower number of bullying incidents in the schools, a drop in local the homeless population, and so on… would serve as a better gauge of congregational vitality.

An Ecclesiology of Place: “Calling” is a fairly well used (perhaps over-used) word within the denomination of which I am a part. On the clergy level, as well as the lay level, we frequently hear… What’s your calling? What sort of ministry are you called to? How did you receive your call? Tell me a little bit about how you were called into vocational ministry? How did God call you? Call, call, call… Not only do we frequently hear these questions, but we are also expected to defend our sense of ‘calling’ over and over again… only to, in some instances, never have the opportunity to actually live into that which we feel called. Not once in my 10 year journey toward ordination was I ever asked, “To where do you feel called?” This notion of ‘place’ became very apparent to me during my time at the Exponential Conference. Many times over I heard church planters talking about being called to a certain geographic location… and most of them extremely confident that this calling was divine in nature. Whether it was from one of the presenters, or in one of my many conversations “around the table,” I got the sense that “place” has quite a bit to do with how we relate to the world around us and how, as ecclesial leaders, we labor to invite people to experience the Kingdom of God. In a denomination where an “Ecclesiology of Place” is not an option, I am left wondering if this has a detrimental impact on our ability to be all that we can be as we strive to represent the Kingdom. It seems to me that “place” and passion are closely aligned, and that passion leads to fruitfulness and faithfulness, and that fruitfulness and faithfulness may lead to the expansion of the Kingdom of God. “Place” seems to play a fairly significant role in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament… perhaps we would do well to be attentive to that biblical notion… I am left wondering about the impact an "Ecclesiology of Place" has on our ability to be missional and incarnational as we strive to be the manifestation of God's Love and Grace in the "places" we inhabit?

Main Sessions: Exponential 2011 was structured into a series of sessions… 5 main sessions and 5 workshop sessions. My travel plans didn’t allow me to take in the first session, but I did make sessions 2-5. Here is a bit of an overview of the main sessions…

Theme: Imagination is to key for the church and it’s people to see the mission as Jesus sees it. The goal in this move is for each individual and church to “see it.” Once a follower or church is able to “see it” then a missional movement is possible.

Theme: A shift is necessary in the lives of Christ followers and the church in order to gain the right understanding and passion for the mission of Jesus. The goal in this move is for each individual and the church to “get it.” This shift will require a change in beliefs, practices and culture if a missional movement is to occur.

Theme: Innovation is the implementation of missional imagination and to do mission as Jesus does it. The goal in this move is for each individual and church to “do it.” The outcome of every Christ follower and church living sent lives on mission is a missional movement.

Tweetables: A new land speed record by Ed Stetzer who went from Genesis 1 to 'the cross' in less than 7 minutes; "Spouse and family first before ministry" – Mark Beeson; "We R lowering the bar on institutional control & raising the bar on relational ministry"-Mark Beeson; "3,000 people come 2 The Austin Stone & very little changes... 3,000 go out & Austin gets transformed" - Matt Carter; "when we aimed 4 'community' we got neither mission or community, when we aimed 4 mission we got both miss. & comm." - Matt Carter

For the mission of Jesus to be accomplished it will require a movement of Christ followers who are willing to go wherever Jesus says to go and do whatever Jesus says to do. We are challenging you to join what Jesus is already doing and be a part of missional movement to accomplish His mission.

Tweetables: ".... you are in this room because somebody dreamed the dream before you..." – Matt Chandler; ".... this stuff isn't new.... it's just our turn" – Matt Chandler; “We don't have a leadership problem or a missional problem, we have a discipleship problem.” - Jo Saxon

Workshops: With over 140 workshops, it was a tad difficult to make a choice from the wide variety of tracks, themes, and presenters… in an attempt to narrow down the options I decide to stick with one featured presenter, Alan Hirsch… a decision that proved quite fruitful. Here is an overview of the workshops I attended.

Title: Shema Spirituality- According to Jesus, the Shema is the central principle of Christian spirituality. This workshop will explore what it means to live in the world where Jesus is King.

Tweetables: ".... mission is offering your whole world back to God"; ".... anything toward God is good... anything away from God can be evil"; ".... obedience is the worship you offer..." ; "...the only way to overcome something that is enslaving you is to develop a passion for something greater"; ".... you want to see biblical holiness... look at Jesus... he's a party animal... look at him in cana"; ".... witness can be a scratch and sniff for the Kingdom of God..." ; ".... when the nuclear family becomes autonomous it can be idolotrous.... let the family be missional"; ".... Calvin says our hearts are idol factories..." – All from Alan Hirsch

Title: Intro to Missional Communities- What is a missional community? Cole & Hirsch will give an overview of what church is, what makes for a healthy missional community and what God seems to be doing today in His Kingdom

Tweetables: "... Christology shapes Missiology.... Missiology shapes Ecclesiology.... which manifests Missional Ecclesiology "; "... we are not to co-opt Jesus, we are to be agents of the Kingdom"; "... you only need 16% of a population to transform the entire population - find that 16% in ur midst" – Alan Hirsch ~ After reviewing a seminary style def. of church "if we can define church w/o Jesus then we can do church w/o him" - Neal Cole; moving forward "... we need to eliminate the distinctions of sacred/secular and clergy/laity" - Neal Cole

Title: Movements: How do I start a missional church movement?- Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson, authors of On the Verge: A Journey into The Apostolic Future will be discussing how the church is on the verge of massive, category-shifting, change. Our times require a different kind of church, an apostolic, reproducing movement where every person is living a mission-sent life. Dave and Alan will lead us through a discussion on what it means for us to be a sent people – a church who follows a missional God.

Title: Leadership & Systems for Missional Movements- Most people want a short cut or the packaged product. Kim and Alan will teach the unique characteristics and DNA of apostolic leadership and the organic systems needed to birth and nurture an actual real missional movement, (not just some blog or books theory on it) They will discuss the APEST (EPh 4) and the kind of team needed for an actual movement.

Small Town Plants: One of the conference tracks that caught my attention was ‘Small Town Plants.’ Being raised in Wyoming and serving at a church in Montana, this title caught my attention. So, when I was considering tracks to participate in I tweeted one of the session presenters to enquire about how they were defining small town plants. An answer was returned almost immediately, “around 50,000.” In light of the fact that my home state, Wyoming, has only two towns above the 50k mark and Montana only three. To put that into perspective, the 4th and 10th largest states by geographic size, collectively, have only five towns with a population of more than 50,000. With that demographic snapshot in mind, it was fairly easy to decide to save my “Small Town Plant” exploration for another day and to jump into Alan Hirsch’s sessions. As I think back about the history of small town church planting, I can’t help but imagine that the Methodist tradition played a huge role in initiating Christian congregations across the country. During a period of time between 1870-1920 we planted a number of congregations at a rapid rate. According to Lyly Schaller, there was a brief period, of about 10 years in there, when we planted an average of about 2 churches a day. My observation is that as we became more institutionalized and less of a ‘movement’ our ability to energetically and intentionally plant congregations in small communities has become diminished. Perhaps the only way for us to capture the spirit and momentum that once guided us, is to foster a 21st century movement born out of our denominational passion for making disciples of Jesus in order that the world, our country, and our cities and towns might be transformed. Perhaps internal initiatives like our focus on creating new places for new people, and the work Path 1 is doing, will prompt us to initiate an external movement... after all, ‘movements’ are a part of our Wesleyan DNA.